June | Photos & Text by Hubert Hobmaier
Traunstein. During a festive ceremony at the Kulturforum Klosterkirche, the Historical Society for the Chiemgau in Traunstein awarded Dr. Alfred Kotter this year’s Max Fürst Prize. Anna Kranzbühler Garcia from the Schule Schloss Stein received the Youth Prize, and Class 8c of the Annette-Kolb-Gymnasium in Traunstein was honored with the Recognition Prize. In his acceptance speech, this year’s award recipient and “father of the award” not only expressed his joy but also addressed the audience with thoughtful words, quoting his mother, Rosemarie Kotter, who had recently passed away.
The Max Fürst Prize is an award presented by the Historical Society for the Chiemgau in Traunstein. It is named after the Traunstein painter and local historian Max Fürst and is awarded to individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to researching and disseminating the history of the Chiemgau region. The prize was first awarded in 2002 and has established itself as an important means of recognizing achievements in local historical research.
As club president Gernot Pülz said in his welcoming remarks: “Today’s program isn’t about soccer, but something much better.” With these words, he expressed his delight that the Max Fürst Prize is being awarded for the 25th time this year. “It puts deserving local historians and researchers in the spotlight and gives them the public recognition they deserve,” said Gernot Pülz, who was also delighted “that this year we are able to honor Dr. Alfred Kotter, the founder of the award.”
Traunstein’s mayor, Dr. Christian Hümmer, also addressed the audience in his capacity as deputy district administrator. He emphasized: “True wealth cannot be measured solely by a municipality’s financial figures.” Christian Hümmer went on to say: “That is precisely why a deep engagement with history is so valuable for our city and the entire Traunstein district. When you engage with history, you can better understand the present.” In addition to congratulating the award recipient, he added: “Today we are honoring a truly deserving recipient, and the Max Fürst Prize is thus literally coming home.”
The idea for this award came from this year’s recipient, Dr. Alfred Kotter, 25 years ago. The historian and museum and exhibition expert Prof. Dr. Manfred Treml praised this year’s award recipient as someone who “always keeps the bigger picture in mind” and is “a teacher through and through.” He also outlined several milestones in Kotter’s career, which began as a teacher at the Chiemgau-Gymnasium and led to his appointment as principal of the Rottmayr-Gymnasium in Laufen in 2010. In 2017, he was appointed director of the Academy for Teacher Training and Personnel Management (ALP) in Dillingen.
At the same time, the presenter praised the award recipient as a family man with “remarkable volunteer commitment,” particularly in the field of local history. Professor Treml said, “You, dear Alfred, have made local history your life’s work and are thereby making an immeasurable contribution to democracy education.” He particularly highlighted the youth award, which he praised as “one of your best inventions.” Encouraging young people to engage in historical research, he said, is an important and formative influence.
In addition to expressing his great joy at receiving the award, the honoree remarked with a wink: “From my perspective, this honor doesn’t leave a bad taste in my mouth, since I haven’t been an active member of the Historical Society’s board since 2018.” At the same time, he also expressed his delight that the Max Fürst Prize has become a lasting institution. This is evident, among other things, in the fact that Adelholzener Alpenquellen has been involved from the very beginning and has once again sponsored the prize this year.
In his speech, however, the award recipient also offered words of caution and reflection. “The work of remembrance must not have any blind spots and, if necessary, must be painful,” said Dr. Alfred Kotter. At the same time, he praised the young people who received the youth awards: “They have shown us very clearly where we need to direct our attention.”
At the same time, he brought up Ludwig-Thoma-Straße in Traunstein and the Traunstein City Park, asking critically, “Should this street continue to bear this name, even though it was not known at the time of its naming that Ludwig Thoma held far-right views?” He also expressed criticism of the city park, noting that while it honors soldiers, other groups of victims are left out. For this reason, he advocated for expanding it into a memorial site for all victims and stated: “A memorial site instead of an event venue.”
At the conclusion of his remarks, Dr. Alfred Kotter spoke about his mother, Rosemarie Kotter, who had passed away just a few weeks earlier. He spoke of a fear that had haunted her right up until her deathbed. She grew up in Berchtesgaden and had also been in contact with Martin Bormann’s family at Obersalzberg. “The fear of saying something wrong—something that would reflect badly on the family and might have meant the loss of freedom—haunted her throughout her life,” said Alfred Kotter. He went on to say, “Democracy is a sacred word”—one of her last sentences.
Three entries from the Schule Schloss Stein, as well as one each from the Annette-Kolb-Gymnasium and the FOS/BOS Traunstein, were submitted for this year’s Youth Award. The two board members of the Historical Society, Katharina Friedrich and Gudrun Perchermeier, presented the various entries to the guests and commended the participants for their consistently high-quality and interesting submissions.
In her paper, Anna Schemmer from the FOS/BOS Traunstein examined tourism in the shadow of history, focusing in particular on the Obersalzberg as a site of remembrance with a social responsibility. The paper was supervised by teacher Monika Bürgmann. Liv Erdmann from the Schule Schloss Stein wrote a seminar paper on the topic “Alois Magg: An Example of Someone Politically Persecuted by the Nazi Dictatorship in Chiemgau,” and Ruizhe Zang addressed “Nazi Persecution and the Culture of Remembrance in Chiemgau: The Example of Josef Kiene, an SPD Politician from Trostberg.”
The Seminar Paper by Anna Kranzbühler Garcia entitled “Spanish Prisoners at the Trostberg Concentration Camp Satellite Camp: The Case of Emeterio López López” ultimately impressed the jury the most. Among other things, the student had conducted interviews with descendants and was able to cite numerous sources in her paper. Beaming with joy, Anna Kranzbühler Garcia was awarded this year’s Max Fürst Youth Prize. All three seminar papers from the Schule Schloss Stein were supervised by teacher Korbinian Kollmeier.
The students in Class 8c at the Annette-Kolb-Gymnasium in Traunstein, on the other hand, were honored with a recognition award. They were recognized in particular for the creativity they demonstrated with their self-developed game, “MONOLUGGI.” The game is based on the classic board game Monopoly and teaches students about the history of Ludwigstraße in Traunstein.
The ceremony at the Kulturforum Klosterkirche concluded with a standing reception attended not only by the award recipients but also by numerous guests and participants in the awards ceremony. The “Obermooser Musi” from Oberteisendorf provided musical accompaniment during the ceremony.
At the end, Gernot Pülz expressed his gratitude to everyone who had contributed to the preparations and the event itself. In particular, he expressed his gratitude to Adelholzener Alpenquellen, as well as to District Administrator Andreas Danzer and the Traunstein district, for their financial support in providing the prizes and awards. Finally, the chairman also thanked the City of Traunstein for providing the venue and the city’s landscaping department for the floral arrangements at this year’s Max Fürst Award ceremony.
Text and Images
Hubert Hobmaier
Caption for the cover photo
Anna Kranzbühler Garcia (in the yellow dress) is the recipient of this year’s Max Fürst Youth Award. Traunstein’s mayor and deputy district administrator, Dr. Christian Hümmer, her teacher Korbinian Kollmeier (from left), and the laudator Katharina Friedrich were among the first to congratulate her and share in the joy of the award winner from the Schule Schloss Stein.
